What Exactly Are the Virginia Flaggers Protesting?

Update: “I was at the chapel on that Sunday. I was chapel organist for the program presented by Lee-Jackson Camp. The colors were presented by Latane Camp. Tripp is not a member of that camp or its color guard.” — comment from Betty Giragosian.

This video pretty much undercuts the 2-plus years of protesting by the Virginia Flaggers in front of the Confederate chapel in Richmond. Their protest has been centered on the removal of the Confederate flag from the chapel grounds. Flagger Tripp Lewis is clearly miffed over being forced to stand on the sidelines during an event that took place inside the chapel on January 19, but once the ceremony ended inside the chapel a color guard was able to take a few photographs on the grounds without any problem.

Lewis claims in the video that he was supposed to take part in the ceremony, but no one in the group leaving the chapel seems to take an interest in the conflict with the officer.

So much for the forced retreat of Confederate Heritage in Richmond. Nothing ever goes right for the Flaggers.

I was at the chapel on that Sunday. I was chapel organist for the program presented by Lee-Jackson Camp. The colors were presented by Latane Camp. Tripp is not a member of that camp or its color guard.

Sorry to burst the little Tripp hate fest y’all got going on here, but I believe an apology is in order here.

It is confirmed that Frank Yates, Jr., Commander of the Captain William Latane Camp #1690, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and Frank Yates, Sr., Color Guard Commander, that Tripp Lewis was absolutely issued an invitation to participate with the color guard several days before the event.

I was told when I visited VFMA last September that a restraining order prevented Tripp from stepping on the VFMA property. That may have had something to do with the reason he was escorted off the grounds to the sidewalk.

I can only shake my head. I have communicated some with Susan and she is a very nice person, from what I know of her. I may not agree with everything the Flaggers do, but she is not anything like this guy. Lewis is just one of those looking to provoke a scene. He’s a disgrace, and his shouts of lawsuits and taking everything the officer has shows exactly how where his head is at. Plus my experience tells me the guy quoting the law and the Constitution is usually the one who knows the least about either.

Eric, her work with the most well-known young white supremacist in America should give you pause. Matt Heimbach was the subject of a two-part report on ABC News earlier this month. He is not some garden variety Lost Causer, but a dangerous racist. And he brags about being a racist. From the SPLC with whom I’ve done work on racial violence issues:

Considered by many to be the face of a new generation of white nationalists, Matthew Heimbach founded a campus chapter of Youth for Western Civilization at Towson University in Maryland and later started the White Student Union there.

He also has been a member of the neo-Confederate League of the South. Since graduating in the spring of 2013, he has entrenched himself further in the white nationalist movement and become a regular speaker on the radical-right lecture circuit.

In His Own Words:
“No longer will the homosexual, Muslim, and black supremacist groups be allowed to hijack our campus. … Youth for Western Civilization is preparing to take our campus back, all we need is the help of people like you to make it happen.” – Youth for Western Civilization blog, January 2012

“To be able to get everyone behind the idea [that] the purpose of our movement shouldn’t be about reforming America, shouldn’t be about trying to make the system better and less unfair towards us, it’s about flipping the table over. It’s about going to temple and saying that this is a violation of God’s law and creating a new homeland for whites around the entire world.”
– Traditionalist Youth Hour with Matthew Parrott, July 10, 2013

“[W]e shouldn’t give up California just yet. Because it truly is beautiful in terms of weather, but it’s full of Mexicans and that’s sort of a problem.”
– Traditionalist Youth Hour with Matthew Parrott, July 10, 2013

“This is our home and our kith and kin. Borders matter, identity matters, blood matters, libertarians and their capitalism can move to Somalia if they want to live without rules, in the West we must have standards and enforce them. The ‘freedom’ for other races to move freely into white nations is nonexistent. Stay in your own nations, we don’t want you here.”
– “I Hate Freedom,” Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

“Those who promote miscegenation, usury, or any other forms of racial suicide should be sent to re-education centers, not tolerated.”
– “I Hate Freedom,” Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

“I do not care if you are a man who ‘loves’ another man, you do not have the right, privilege, or ability to marry him and carry on in a degenerate relationship. In any healthy society you would be dragged off to therapy to help you cope with
your mental illness, not given glitter and assless chaps to parade down the street. A society helps the mentally ill; it doesn’t parade them around as normal.”
– “I Hate Freedom,” Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

Patrick stated “Eric, her (Susan Hathaway) work with the most well known (Heimbech) ….”
As a Flagger, this is news to me. I was unaware that Mrs Hathaway was working with Heimbech. Please let me know what they are doing together, what work are they engaging in. I would be very interested in finding this out.
Thanks and God Bless

I don’t know anything about the nature of their relationship, but Susan clearly has no problem being photographed with admitted racists. That’s sufficient cause to warn Eric that he might want to distance himself from this particular group.

For the Civil War buffs among us, it’s really worth spending some time over at Kevin Levin’s blog, Civil War Memory. I can’t act like I discovered the place–some readers brought it to my attention. But it’s a great blog dealing in exactly what its title claims.